CENTENNIAL, Colo. — Editor's note: The story below includes details about a sexual assault that readers might find disturbing.
A man accused of sexually assaulting a woman in her car at gunpoint was sentenced Friday to 30 years in prison.
Hilton Acker, 34, pleaded guilty in July to second-degree kidnapping in Arapahoe County court as part of a plea agreement. Court records show a sentence enhancer of using a weapon in a violent crime was proven.
In January 2023, the victim said she was driving on South Alton Street between East Mississippi Avenue and East Florida Avenue, which is near Aurora, when she was flagged down by a man she did not know.
She reported to police that the man was waving and holding a cup of coffee. She pulled over and the man began knocking on the passenger side window, the arrest affidavit says. She rolled down the window, and the man pointed a gun at her.
He told her to open the door, which she said she did out of fear for her safety. She said he ordered her to drive, and after about five minutes, they ended up in alley, where the victim reported that the man forced her to perform a sex act on him at gunpoint, the affidavit says.
She reported that afterward, the man got into the front seat and drove them around for about 30 minutes before stopping.
She reported that the man raped her in the back seat. She said they drove to a neighborhood where the man stole her phone and ran from the vehicle, the affidavit says.
She said she drove out of the neighborhood to find a gas station to ask for directions because she did not know where she was and arrived home about 5 a.m.
Investigators later spoke with the victim's partner, who said he was working as a bartender until about 3:30 a.m. He reported that she had stopped texting him around 2:30 a.m. and was crying when she got home and immediately went to take a shower.
When she got out, she told him what happened, the affidavit says. The man used the find-my-phone feature and located her phone in Green Valley Ranch. The victim was later able to identify a business on East 34th Drive as the location where she was assaulted. She also recognized the gas station where she asked for directions after driving through the area again, the affidavit says.
A DNA swab taken from the back seat of the woman's vehicle matched Acker, the affidavit says.
Acker was arrested in June 2023. On Friday, Acker was sentenced to 30 years in the Department of Corrections with credit for 476 days served.
